Tell us your biggest business lesson learned. If you were to start your
writing career all over again, what would you do differently?

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.

Where do I start? There are so many things I could do better, but that’s part of the learning curve with becoming an author, especially when you have no mentors around you to help out. Hoeing that row alone can be quite a feat. Where does one start, because it certainly is more than writing a book.

The biggest thing I would change is to fix my understanding of grammar earlier on, and how to write more compelling copy. Grammar is an easy fix if you work with a great editor who takes the time, and you can set aside your ego long enough to brush up your skills. Unfortunately, many educational institutions do not put enough emphasis on proper writing. You end up doing all right, so long as you don’t want to be a writer. If you do, oh, lord, you’ve got a lot to undo and a lot to polish.

One of the best things I did was continue my higher education. It taught me how to write better. There I found the mentors I needed to get my skill set where it needed to be. Writing every day will not fix it. Writing every day without learning how to write better can reinforce bad habits. So be wary of that advice.

As for writing more compelling copy, that is a skill that requires constant work. An author needs to have their finger on the proverbial pulse of culture. They need to get what sells. Marketing classes would go a long way to clearing up the how, if not the execution, too. In my opinion, the how is the most difficult part. Really understanding what attracts readers would almost certainly create a solid base on which to write copy.

So I guess what I’d change is that I’d do more classes around the business end of being an author.

One other thing. If I had the power to change it, I’d make social media a boon that happened sooner. It’s fantastic for getting to network and meet your readers, which is not just good for business but good for an author’s soul.

So you want to learn German? You’re going to need some resources…

It’s been 7 months since my last check in on this topic. I assure you that I’ve been studying hard—as hard as a full-time working, pregnant woman can. Basically, my grammar book is set on hold and I am just running exercises in DuoLingo until I settle my new routine. Baby, after all, comes first.

Recently, DuoLingo updated the app with more lessons in the already existing sections. From time to time they do this. It’s pretty frustrating. You feel like all your work has been unwound. Imagine being x-months pregnant, typically exhausted, and trying to fit in lessons when you can (mostly an hour at night before bed). Being overwhelmed with the day to day can make this change defeating.

Most users of the app would prefer new lessons added to the list, or, that when you’ve completed the initial set of lessons, this unlocks the updates. In this manner, the app remains dynamic and engaging. The user gains a sense of accomplishing stages, and thus competency. This time, I handled it by using the feature test out on 90% of the updated lessons. That isn’t an option for everyone. Certainly, as well, it may not be a good idea for me, considering pregnancy can make it difficult to remember the lessons. Repetition, as I have stated in other installments of this series, is really key to overcoming this. DuoLingo will give you plenty of opportunities to practice.

The app should be utilized daily for at least one half hour or however long it takes to complete the lessons marked incomplete. Sometimes this is more than you feel you have stamina for that day. There have been some difficult nights running through them. Imagine opening the app on an especially tough night and finding an update!

Once I completed these lessons, and continued a week or two more in doing practices, I found my competency measured at 47% instead of 23%. Despite the frustration of finding lessons backtracked, the update served to up my skills significantly. Utilizing the test out feature likely had a huge impact on this, because I proved I somehow already knew what was contained in the many lessons. That gave me the sense of gaining competency, and that is a necessary take away for a student to continue forward with learning any topic.

If you use DuoLingo, tell me about your experience so far in the comments below. Are you learning German too, and have found a useful trick to dealing with frustration and overcoming a tight schedule? How do you handle being too tired to learn effectively?

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.

The start up of my blog is inextricable from the publishing of my first book. The original Blue Honor site was my maiden voyage into marketing, as well. Not having a network around me, I had a hard start. People would somehow find me, but in dribs and drabs. When I attended book events, they would ask for the site, and I had no way to check the days after for hits. The only too available was a quirky counter that didn’t always work.

My skills with graphics were also very limited, and I didn’t have access to the sites I do now to help me build great content. The year was 2008, just before the spring of 2009 when the book was set to arrive. In 2005, I had joined deviantArt and learned quite a bit about digital graphics and design, but I was not formally trained. I’m grateful for my time there, however, because I learned important skills that have been priceless to marketing my books.

What you see on this current site was born out of the site I had created back then. The only thing I didn’t have was an official blog. If there was something that I wanted to write in length, I would post a note on Facebook. Otherwise, I didn’t blog. My focus was on my professional careers and learning more about what I should be doing. I really dug in my heals against blogging. The reasoning behind that feeling was a fear of getting buried in the constant posting and responsibility of a blog. With a job to pay the bills, my time was limited to begin with. The refurbishment of my site, however, demanded better and consistently new content. Putting the blog off wasn’t an option any longer. This was a major key to marketing that I was missing, a means of outreach and connection with the readership I was building. Without this, my site would go largely ignored, as it had to that point. Branching out beyond local book signings was a must, and a blog allows me to do that.

The concern about time is still always on my mind, even more so as I become a mother. The difference now, though, is that I view this time as professional development, spending time honing my skills and learning new ones, then employing all I learn from my network. Facebook still play an important role, as does all the social media I take part in, because that gives me a platform to share my work outside my site, and bring attention to it.

Considering the topics I wanted to write on was an important step in the refurbishing of the site. Would I want them to correspond to my books, and in what ways? Could I include things of a more personal nature, and what would those personal things be? Was there room enough to grow? For example, adding things like Shagbottom Theater.

Growing content is important for an author platform. Keeping things relevant is equally important. Some of my topics aren’t covered as often as others, mostly due to the limited material I have to give them. I’m not going to slap together a post monthly when there is nothing to say about a particular topic. Readers will definitely sense there’s nothing of worth there, and that can harm outreach. Readers deserve quality posts.

Following this formula, I’ve watched my blog grow with readers. It’s a good feeling that all this hard work hasn’t gone to waste in a dark corner of the internet!

Let’s hop over to see what the other authors have to say about their startups…

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.

Well, let’s get straight to it. During the week, I work a regular job. I’m up early with the working crowd and off to the office. Miss Sue (Sadie Sue Shagbottom) goes out a couple times before I leave. And, then I proceed to miss her until I get back. At that time, it’s super and settling in from the day. That’s when my author hat goes on.

Once the computer is booted up, Sadie is walked and fed, and dinner is in the oven, I settle in to check on my social media and blog. It’s hard to do this on my phone and during my short breaks, so I’m more likely to be around for chats and the like in the evenings and on weekends.

It’s not glamorous, like many movies and shows make it out to be. I live very much the same as other people. During the week, I keep my time to work on networking, interacting with readers, and writing my blog to a couple hours. I set an alarm and that’s that. Do I obey perfectly? Absolutely I don’t. When the alarm goes off, that means get the lunch made for the next day if it’s during the week, and arrange your outfit. Fridays and the weekend, it’s time to just go brush my teeth, clean my face, get on the pj’s and put my feet up (necessary more now with the pregnancy, than ever). Miss Sue then gets a final before bed outing.

Once settled, I watch one of my shows on Netflix (something superhero, fantasy, scifi, or old school television…the list is long), and do my German Lessons. Then, it’s off to sleep.

On weekends, I “sleep in.” First thing on order is to take the pup out and get her fed. Then I make myself some cereal and watch cartoons, just as I have always done since I was little. My ritual, I guess. If it’s laundry day, I go back up to strip and make up the bed with fresh linens plus get dressed. From there, I get the laundry arranged and start the first load. Then, it’s time to check on social media, the blog, and other assignments. Sometimes I may bake something in the afternoon, or get in the garden.

You might wonder where the writing comes in. For me, and many other authors, the process of getting ideas and thinking them through is the biggest part of the process. It takes place while we go through all of our day to day tasks. If there’s research to be done or reading, it goes, for me, at the times I’m scheduled to do social media and the blog, or after the German lessons. The thing is, I fit it in. Somethings are pushed aside or cut back to make room. Remember, I’m the one who wrote the trilogy between semesters while getting my masters. By the time I get to writing it all down, I’ve mulled it over enough it’s more like taking dictation.

Ooops! There goes that alarm to boot me off line! (R2D2 bleeps from my phone.)

Thanks for taking a moment to stop by and be sure to check out the answers the other authors have for you…

What Is The Next Vacation You’d Love To Take?
Dream away. Share the fun.

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.

The answer to this question shifts a little now that I am expecting a daughter. Because I had such a fantastic time as a child going to Walt Disney World, I am eager to take her on a trip there. I’m glad that I have some time to save up my pennies to do this. It won’t just be the cost of the trip there, the hotel, and the tickets to the parks. My beloved Miss Shagbottom would need to be boarded, and that can get costly. Her health in five years may not be as solid as it is now, because she’ll be twelve, but I hope she will always live a healthy life. She’s too good of a dog not to.

I look forward to seeing my child’s eyes light up at all the wonderful things to be found in the parks. I can hardly imagine how much joy there will be in taking pictures of her posing with characters. The train ride around the park will be even more fun. I’ve never ridden the carousel, and I imagine that will change this next time.

Years have passed since last I visited these parks. There is a great deal more to see for me, too. I’ll have to share my Mickey bars, quite gladly. But, the craziest part is that my parents will now be the grandparents, and I will slide into their role, and my daughter will be in the place I had occupied prior. Generations.

There are so many things I want to share with my little one. It’s hard to know where to begin. Some of the rides have restrictions, so sharing them will have to wait. For the most part, everything is on the table. Oh, I do hope she loves the Haunted Mansion as much as I do. I remember being so little and adoring that ride from the start. On my last trip in 2001, six trips around marked Halloween. Yes, they do extra special things at that time. I’m glad I had ridden it so many times. I didn’t realize I wouldn’t be going back any time soon.

You may be wondering, where would you go if you didn’t have a small child? My list is long! However, with recent issues in Europe, I may avoid going there for a little while. There is a great deal to see across the States, even though it’s probably no safer. Visits to my brother in Virginia would be on the table, as well as a train ride out West to do some photography.